neurology

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Recommended: paragraph about smell memory

1: When you enter the kitchen, you smell and see freshly baked chocolate chip cookies cooling on a plate. You know that you shouldn't eat one because you are trying to lose weight, but you decide to eat one anyway, so you reach out to pick one up. By the time it reaches your mouth, you have begun to salivate.
The particles from the cookies enter your nose and settle on the olfactory mucosa binding to olfactory receptor proteins on the olfactory receptor neurons. When these particles bind to the receptor, the protein changes shape which causes an action potential in the neuron. This signal travels along the olfactory nerve (cranial nerve 1) to the olfactory bulb in the brain. From the olfactory bulb, neurons are sent to many different areas including through the anterior olfactory cortex to the priform cortex which is primarily used to identify the smell. Neurons also get sent to the amygdala which is associated with social functions such as identifying mates (this is a more primal instinctual use of smells). Neurons are also sent to the entorhinal cortex which links the smell to a specific memory. This is why smells make you think of things from the past.

Visually, light from the cookies enter your eye and cause a reaction in the photosenstitive retinal ganglion cells within the retina . This cause an action potential down the optic nerve. Most of the neurons travel to the Lateral geniculate nucleus located in the thalamus (some neurons travel to other areas as described in question 2). This acts as a relay and processing center. The signal is then sent via “optic radiation” (a tract of neurons within the brain) to the visual cortex. The visual cortex processes the information that the eye sees.

The orbitofronta...

... middle of paper ...

...y nerve (ipsilateral side). This causes the foot to jerk away from source of pain. In addition, the sensory nerve synapses with a motor neuron on the contralateral (opposite side) anterior horn. This contralateral motor neuron stabilizes the uninjured leg. This way, when the foot is pulled away, the other side can help in balancing and supporting the weight of the body. At the same time as all this is going on, the sensory neuron sends a signal up the spinal cord. This signal is used to tell the body to shift the center of gravity away from the injured side so that the person doesn't topple over. This whole process of controling contralateral motor neurons to stabilize the body is called cross extension reflex.

The process to see the bleeding is done be the optic nerve via the lateral geniculate nucleus and the visual cortex as described in question 1.

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